In a kitchen in Mea She'arim, stands an unlikely group of people: a Christian from Texas, a Muslim Arab from the Mount of Olives, and a Christian Arab from Jerusalem. Even more unusual is that the group is learning how to bake Challah -- the special sweet bread baked for the Jewish Sabbath.

Sloppy reporting doesn't only damage the credibility of the news outlets, it creates tolerance for a lack of intensive investigation, diverts attention from legitimate news, and can unfairly malign largely defenseless insular religious groups.

Although this is a relatively obscure ritual performed by mostly Hasidic Jews, this practice has garnered national controversy with PETA calling for the banning of the practice and many rabbis even criticizing it, encouraging the use of money as an alternative to chickens.

The more I learn about science, and the more I learn about religion, the more I feel like the two so beautifully complement each other. The more people debate and argue, the more I see the commonality between the two.

As the New York Hasidic community faces increasing criticism in the wake of this scandal, this gay Muslim in Bangladesh hopes others show the Hasidic Community the same compassion, empathy, and understanding that one ultra-orthodox Hasidic rabbi once showed me.

When the Hasidim of Kotzk prayed, they did not move. Any external sign of piety was deemed pretentious. The story is told of a great student, who after one prayer session -- though someone observing from the side would not even have noticed that he was praying -- was bathed in sweat and had actually cracked two of his teeth.

My father grew up with little to no Jewish tradition. No Shabbat. No Menorah. No Kosher. He spent much of his life searching for an identity. Eventually, he discovered and embraced his Jewish heritage at an Oglala tribal meeting on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

More than anything, I hate the box. The stuffy, claustrophobic, choking box that others in the media create with their own assumptions of how I must conform in order to observe the beauty of Hasidic life.

Purim is a radical embrace of the uncontrollable nature of life, celebrating the concealment of God through wearing masks, and the confusion of life through intoxication. With faith in the Divine, we go through chaos and transcend into something higher, into a place of Oneness.